Response to Elliot
Elliot Noss responds to the anonymous Reformation article here.
First of all, I didn't write the thing — it was found nailed to the front door of my blog. And it does seem to be prompting some discussion, which is worthwhile.
But even though I didn't write it, I don't agree with some of Elliot's criticisms of it. I do think that ICANN's “everything not permitted is prohibited” default setting is the wrong way to go. I don't think registries are monopolies — no more than any one car brand is a monopoly. Registries are competing — hard. I do think that the internet community can ban things if they want to, through consensus.
But does every change a registry makes have to be approved in advance? If Elliot thinks the answer to that is “yes,” why does this apply to .biz but not .de or .uk? If Elliot thinks registries need permission to do anything, who gave ICANN that power? How is that power constrained?
These are, to some extent, religious questions.
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a few quick points (due to time and bandwidth constraints):
- registries are NOT= car companies, think of the differences in barriers to entry;
- if registries are “competing — hard” they must be doing it with some of their other customers. not this one. you and I should have a long talk about this one day. they have become better suppliers but they are miles from good suppliers;
- I don't think ALL changes need be approved, I tried to frame that in my post (the nature of the change need flow directly from the monopoly). more importantly, I take it you have not worked with many cc's. they have varying, but completely different hurdles to face when making changes. most importantly, they answer to a different master. the countries they are from. each with a different structure. as it should be.
I am now officially on vacation (using the last packets from the ICANN network before it is torn down) so next packets may be sparse. pile on me and I will try and dig myself out when possible :-).